"If I could go back and change the title..."

[StillStunned]

The other day I mentioned that after two and a half months "Life and Death of the She-Wolf" hadn't even had a thousand views. Well, apparently my griping worked, because a few dozen people at least glanced at it, and several even rated it.

But in the same post I mentioned that perhaps I should have given it a more catchy title - "A Ghost Recalls Her Sex Life", if I remember correctly.

This same week, I published my Pink Orchid story. The title went through several changes: originally the story was called "A Shared Experience", then it was "Inside Outside". Finally I settled on "The Walled Garden" simply because I couldn't think of anything better or sexier. The story is doing well, so I can't complain.

But do you ever look at a story of yours that's struggling for attention and think, "If only I'd given it a different title"? Despite my earlier remark, I don't think I'd change She-Wolf, because I love the story, and in fact I quite like how niche it is.

But others? "Fun with Fingers" could have been sexier, perhaps "An Unseen Touch" or something like that. "Closeness" would be "Look, Don't Touch", maybe. "Love at First Sight" might have done better as "To Watch Over You".

So, anyone else here have these regrets?

 

[Not2Pervy]

I have absolutely had that regret. I even once published a story I thought was pretty decent in Erotic Couplings, where after a few months it had only about 5k views and a rating around 4.5. A very small number of people commented very favorably. I pulled it down, tightened it up a bit, and reposted it a few weeks later in Mature under a different name, where it proceeded to score about 0.25 higher with 3 to 4 times as many views.

The longer I’ve been on this site the more I’m convinced that the title and capsule description are really important in driving views.

 

[samhasstories]

That's an interesting question. I struggle with titles in my non-erotica stuff, usually combing through the text to find one line that sort of thematically represents the whole, and highlighting that. It can be hard to find the right one, and easy to question whatever I pick.

I guess it's telling that I don't think about that much with my erotica. My titles are pretty bland, essentially just a short descriptor of what's taking place - Vacation with the Marshals is about a vacation with the Marshal family, The Photo Shoot is about... you get it. But it kinda fits, I think. My erotica is simple, no frills. A more inspired title might set the expectation that I'm trying to do something more interesting with the story than I am. The only reason I don't call them all Cumshots is I might start to get them confused.

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

The story I titled, "Dance With Me." It didn't really struggle for attention at release but there are a dozen or more stories on the site with the exact same title, so that name feels less interesting. Doing it over, I would chosen something else.

Now I do a story search on my pending title to see how often it's been used before I submit it.

 

[Devinter]

Caught in a Sticky Web had a working title of "Gas station hot dog" and honestly that's a better title considering it's a blowjob story set in a gas station. To make matters worse, the tagline reads: "Mature man and young woman fulfil each other's fantasies." - that's saying so very little, especially since the story is already in the Mature category.

The Inquisitor's Judgement really isn't a memorable title either, and it says next to nothing about what kind of story it is. The tagline "Dystopian world in which food must be earned. Sexually." is also fairly obscure, but at least there's something to lure a person in there potentially. It got very few reads despite how hard I worked on it. At least people like it, though!

The Crestfallen is not a good title whatsoever, but I named it that for personal reasons, as this story is a bit less fictional than some of the others I've created. (An element of truth in every story, eh? But this one more than most of mine.) If I could go back in time, I would change a lot more than just the title about this story - including the category I put it in, as it definitely belongs in Anal and not Erotic Coupling. I believe it's my longest published non-chaptered work at 26k words, and it only got about 6000 views - and out of those, I bet less than half finished it as certain parts are just unnecessarily dull. Maybe one day I'll rewrite it. Probably not, but maybe.

 

[karina_jayde]

I do wish I could change the title of my 'Drowning at Dusk' series. I honestly can't even really remember why I chose it. I think I had the term 'dusk' in mind because it's a fantasy series with an elven culture called 'dusk elves.' While the alliteration is nice, and I suppose it does hint at a belabored metaphor about drowning in emotions, it doesn't really work overall, and sort of alludes to actual drowning or something nautical/maritime, which doesn't really fit at all. Given that the later stories involved the main characters bonding through an unusual magical dance, something with 'dance' and 'dusk' in the title might have worked better.

Mostly I wish I had done different short descriptions for several of my works. The character limit makes it a struggle, but I definitely felt I could have done better, especially with the first entry, which was 'An assassination mission goes awry.' That is an apt descriptor of what happens, but it doesn't really hint at the allure of the target and the seeds that are planted in that first installment.

I have also found (albeit my data set is limited, given I only have 16 works) that directly mentioning a sex act gets a big boost in reads, lol. The entries later in my series that mention 'threesome' have a notable jump in views compared to other later stories that don't mention that. Sheer views aren't everything, of course, but going forward I am going to try to entice people more with the descriptions and titles.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Five Nights With Freddy. Love the story, both because it's a fun story and because of the collaboration with @seraph_nocturne, but I feel part of why it never got the readership I hoped for was because of the name.

 

[MyBareTorso]

My huge regret is actually opting to use the term "Oz Beach Boy" in all of my titles. Yes, it makes my stories instantly recognisable, but I think it might also turn some readers off. It also means my titles are very short, and rather artless. When I wrote my first stories, however, I genuinely did not think I'd still be here with nearly 100 tales published (the literary track marks of my addiction to Literotica)...if so, "Oz Beach Boy" would definitely not have been used. It doesn't bother me enough to go back and change anything, but it's certainly a regret...

 

[mildlyaroused]

I think there's a difference on Lit between a good title and a title that draws views.

In my experience, very plain titles that just outline the kink in question tend to attract readers. As an example, I saw a title recently that was called "Breeding my wife's Sister" (or something along those lines). I don't know about you, but I wouldn't consider this title very literary or clever - but it gets the point across well and gets the I/T audience excited.

A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

 

[StillStunned]

A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

My most-viewed story is called "Too Cold Not to Fuck". It doesn't really make any sense, even in the context of the story, but it sounds great and it's definitely an eye-catcher.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yes. Hedonism House is about a crumbling ruin of a resort that does a "Shining" kind of thing when a woman enters it. She's whipped back in time to 1962. It's rated well and comments are positive, but views are about sixty percent of my other stories in that category, with more provocative titles. The lousy thing of it is, that it's actually a good title for the story. It fits. So as much as I thought about changing it, I won't.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I love a good title, and am pretty happy with most of mine.

That said, the story "The Accidental Doggers" had it's title changed after my beta-reader told me I was reaching too much with the original title. "The Curious Night of Incidental Dogging"

Much to my suprise he had no such objections to my April Fools story (publishing later today) called "Chocolate and the Charlie Factory"

 

[BobbyBrandt]

The other day I mentioned that after two and a half months "Life and Death of the She-Wolf" hadn't even had a thousand views. Well, apparently my griping worked, because a few dozen people at least glanced at it, and several even rated it.

But in the same post I mentioned that perhaps I should have given it a more catchy title - "A Ghost Recalls Her Sex Life", if I remember correctly.

This same week, I published my Pink Orchid story. The title went through several changes: originally the story was called "A Shared Experience", then it was "Inside Outside". Finally I settled on "The Walled Garden" simply because I couldn't think of anything better or sexier. The story is doing well, so I can't complain.

But do you ever look at a story of yours that's struggling for attention and think, "If only I'd given it a different title"? Despite my earlier remark, I don't think I'd change She-Wolf, because I love the story, and in fact I quite like how niche it is.

But others? "Fun with Fingers" could have been sexier, perhaps "An Unseen Touch" or something like that. "Closeness" would be "Look, Don't Touch", maybe. "Love at First Sight" might have done better as "To Watch Over You".

So, anyone else here have these regrets?

I'll share a few examples of stories that I have posted with single word titles:

and finally,

I don't regret any of the titles, but I admit that I do wonder how different ones might have impacted the stories with readers, positively or negatively.

 

[Djmac1031]

Over all I'm pretty happy with my title choices.

I have had some regrets on category selection.

The Devil And Angel Em, while having some BDSM elements, really should have gone in Fantasy.

Same with Pornville. It's essentially a Fantasy story, but it had so many various sexual kinks / genres that I went with the catch all Erotic Couplings. And in hindsight that was a mistake.

Mya Watches did just find in E/V, but it really is more a Mature story.